Feb 1, 2019, Portland (OR) Tribune: Classroom aides sue local school districts claiming abuse https://pamplinmedia.com/pt/9-news/418770-322269-classroom-aides-sue-local-school-districts-claiming-abuse Eight educational assistants are suing Portland Public Schools and several administrators for $3.6 million alleging the special needs students they were supposed to assist frequently assaulted them by biting, scratching, throwing furniture, even urinating on them. The lawsuit accuses the district of negligence, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, discrimination, retaliation and failure to re-employ. The lawsuit claims the district and administrators did not sufficiently protect the educational assistants or students. ... Being battered is a widespread concern for workers in special education classrooms. In early January, an educational aide sued the Gresham-Barlow School District and a principal, alleging she had also been harmed by special needs students. The Oregon School Employees Association, the union for educational aides and other classified employees, recently featured a series of articles on the topic on its web site. The 61-page PPS lawsuit, filed Jan. 28 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, charges that students bit, kicked, scratched, spit and urinated on the aides and some of the assaults were sexual. The suit was originally filed by two educational assistants in November, but amended, adding the six other aides and increasing the amount of damages. The $3.6 million is for economic damages some of the women suffered and $450,000 each for non-economic damages. ... Dangerous behavior Rebecca Cambreleng, attorney for the educational aides, said the classroom helpers were worried about the students' behavior, noting that the violence is not the students' fault. "Nobody blames these children. They aren't getting the support they need," Cambreleng said. ... The suit details a litany of assaults on each of the eight. The lasuit alleges that at Woodlawn Moore and Ferrer-Burgett "endured students biting, kicking, slapping, punching, pinching, scratching, spitting, head-butting and being urinated on and choked." They also had furniture thrown at them and endured sexual assaults. The suit says students sometimes ran from the room and the aides had to chase them and the classroom often had to be cleared because a student "was having a dangerous behavioral episode." Despite complaints, the lawsuit said "no measures were put in place to protect the staff from frequent abuse." ...
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
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Loss of Brain Trust features over 9,000 news stories published worldwide since January, 2017
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Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
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What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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